French woman gets suspended sentence for veil attack

A retired French teacher who bit, slapped and scratched an Emirati tourist and removed her veil is given a one-month suspended sentence.

Samira, 36, wearing a niqab, the islamic full veil, buy socks at a market of Venissieux near Lyon, eastern France, on April 22, 2010. French government will pass a law to ban Muslim women from wearing a full-face veil in public, despite a warning from experts that such a law could be unconstitutional, it announced on April 21.      AFP PHOTO / PHILIPPE DESMAZES *** Local Caption ***  361307-01-08.jpg
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PARIS // A Paris court has given a retired French teacher a one-month suspended sentence for attacking an Emirati woman because she was wearing a face-covering veil.

The court on Thursday also ordered the retired teacher, Jeanne Ruby, to pay ($1,140) in damages to the victim, a citizen of the UAE.

Ruby had been charged with "aggravated violence," and the prosecutor in the case had asked that she be given a two-month suspended sentence.

The incident took place in February in a Paris home decor store, when Ruby bit, slapped and scratched the Emirati woman.

In a recent interview with Le Parisien newspaper, Ruby compared the niqab to a "muzzle" and said she didn't mean to harm the woman, but just wanted to pull the veil off.